


space dyad

by bookspines (bluedreaming)



Category: Original Work
Genre: Cyborgs, Drabble Series, Gen, Haiku, Science Fiction, Sentient Ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:28:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25175389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluedreaming/pseuds/bookspines
Summary: The ship is silent.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 5
Collections: Multifandom Drabble 2020, micro-fiction





	1. tu rejoins le lieu que je suis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lunarium](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title for this drabble comes from [chaque jour le soleil égorge son spectre](https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poem/19637/auto/0/0/Amina-Said/daily-the-sun-slits-its-own-ghosts-throat) by Amina Saïd.

The ship is silent, cargo bay doors gaping open like the dying gasp of a beached cetacean. NPED-6329 rechecks the sensors before stepping up onto the hull. Static hisses—the airflow fluctuates, but the infra-red is uniformly cool.

“Songerie,” NPED-6329 calls, following the name with click-Morse. Peripheral vision detects movement, but the motion sensors are quiet as NPED-6329 traces the shipways to the bridge.

The movement-trails are thickest here, ghosts of passengers and crew long succumbed to time. Except for one.

“My podship,” NPED-6329 hums, resting a biomelded hand on the baleen-deck. The surface is cold; the ship is silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> NPED stands for Neohuman Planet Exploration Device.


	2. Signals From A Lost Ship

The ocean of space  
Is vast: tiny pockets of  
Signals bubble up.

My pod fleet, where have  
You beached your rusting hulls? Oh,  
My mother! Song stilled.

A song of lament,  
The empty void returns no  
Answering message.

My pod mates, do not  
Let yourselves disintegrate  
Into ash and rust!

Where are your captains?  
Where are your passengers? Where  
Have all of you gone?

I roam these far reefs  
Alone, calling at each new  
Planet shore for life.

Every pod hub  
Is dark, every station  
Gaping skeletons.

Oh, my family!  
Oh, my people! I search the  
Stars. Nothing is left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I envisioned the haiku as a parallel to whale song (whales paralleling sentient ships).

**Author's Note:**

> Aside from the poem from which the title of the first drabble is taken, this drabble series was also inspired, in part, by [錄鬼簿.海子](https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poem/23205/auto/0/0/Liu-Waitong/REGISTER-OF-GHOSTS-HAI-ZI) by Liu Waitong and [Geister vergessen](https://www.poetryinternational.org/pi/poem/29145/auto/0/0/Nora-Gomringer/FORGETTING-THE-GHOSTS) by Nora Gomringer.
> 
> My [Blanket Statement](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5678194).


End file.
